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As data center proposals continue to surge across the state, suburban Morgan County is next in line for a major investment, as an unnamed developer moves ahead with a billion-dollar project.
Since the start of the year, Morgan County officials have rezoned nearly 400 acres of farmland for light industrial use and approved a series of tax abatements that will see at least $1 billion of investment into a data center campus near Monrovia.
In that time there’s also been growing opposition to a data center with public protests and a pending lawsuit hoping to slow the development.
But with signed development agreements in hand, Morgan County Economic Development Corp. Executive Director Mike Dellinger said the campus will give the region new revenue streams and vital resources for the future.
“I knew from firsthand experience this would be a tremendous opportunity that would bring things to Morgan County in our future that we never would have expected for this somewhat rural suburban county,” Dellinger said. “This is a new industry sector to Indiana that’s already advanced elsewhere in the country and we have a chance now with this to change our game.”
Project Louie
Referred to in initial documents as ‘Project Louie,” the data center campus will be built on 391 acres of land in northwest Morgan County.
The site is just east of the town of Monrovia. Its boundaries are Keller Hill Road to the north, North Antioch Road to the east, Indiana 42 to the south and West Union Church Road to the west. An AES Indiana electrical transmission line runs through the site.
In addition to the original 391 acres, the Morgan County Council added more land to the economic revitalization area at a Tuesday evening meeting in case the project scope widens.
Current plans call for four data center buildings, though Dellinger said that number could change once construction gets underway.
After rezoning approval in February, the county commissioners unanimously voted through a development agreement in May that will see the tech company pay no local taxes on qualified computing equipment purchases for a 40-year period. That’s on top of a 50% abatement on property taxes for 10 years on data center buildings.
In return, the anonymous company has promised to spend at least $1 billion on the facility and to hire 50 employees per data center building.
The local taxes are in addition to state tax breaks granted to the project by the Indiana Economic Development Corp. that could total up to $42 million over 35 years.
Dellinger said the project is all set on the county’s end, and locals are waiting for the company to move forward.
But not everyone thinks the project is a good idea. A number of residents in and around Monrovia have protested and even filed a lawsuit hoping to stop the project.
Christopher Lamberson says he recently bought a farmstead a few miles away from the data center site and is worried about the data center’s effects on the local water table since he uses a well on his farm.
“We have a well that we use to water a lot of our crops—all of our crops, actually,” Lamberson said. “I think they are going to have to tap into our aquifer and I’m concerned about my well water being drained. Because that has happened. That’s been shown to happen.”
The Department of Natural Resources has investigated lowered water table issues around New Carlisle due to Amazon’s massive data center build in northern Indiana.
Monrovia is petitioning the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission for permission to serve as the sewer provider for the data center site.
The pending lawsuit alleges county commissioners didn’t follow the correct process for rezoning the tract. Dellinger said the pending litigation isn’t holding up the project.
Woodland Caribou
Another concern for those opposed to the project is the secrecy in which it’s moved forward.
As of Thursday, the company behind the Morgan County data center has not publicly identified itself. Dellinger said he is under a non-disclosure agreement and can’t say who the company is.
Lamberson said many in the community believe Google is behind the project because a staffer let the company name slip during a meeting earlier in the year. Public documents appear to point in the same direction.
Tax agreements name a shell corporation called Woodland Caribou as the data center operator. That LLC is listed to the same Indianapolis address as two other shell companies associated with Google projects in Indiana. Registration documents also list the same manager for both Woodland Caribou and Deep Meadow Ventures—the company Google is working through on a data center in Indianapolis.
Both the Indianapolis and Monrovia projects are being represented by Barnes & Thornburg attorney Joe Calderon. Calderon did not respond to an interview request from Inside INdiana Business.
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How exactly is this for the kids if you’re offering them very few jobs that they’re not likely to be able to get and tax abatements that they will be living with for decades?
Came pillage our land and natural resources. In fact we’ll pay for the privilege.
It still boggles my mind how 40 year tax abatements contribute to the local economy.!?
The $Billion development is pays no taxes.? Where is the economic advantage they keep claiming?
Abatement doesn’t necessarily mean avoiding 100% of taxes. In most instances, it means a reduction in taxes paid. A potential critique is the legislature allowing avoidance of sales taxes for the equipment purchased. This was passed in 2019 so Indiana could be on-par with other states and compete for new data centers.
Also, I thought Morgan County was Duke Energy territory, is AES allowed to sell power in Duke turf?
It is AES territory. AES has a “leg” that follows St. Rd. 42 just south of I-70 to Quncy, IN. This includes Monrovia in that line.
Agree, how does a location which requires few people, is on tax abatements for decades help local employment (outside initial construction) and contribute to the local economy. Still trying to figure out why these are such a big deal to have given the small return on investment for the State.
That’s why the state is paying the Boston Consulting Firm $650,000 to come up with something they can give us to claim “no, geez, these data centers are great!”
https://www.ibj.com/articles/iedc-extends-consulting-contract-for-study-of-data-center-opportunities-pitfalls
So let me get this straight…no significant job creation, tax abatements mean little tax revenue, it’s a major strain on local water and electricity, and takes out 400 acres of useful land.
Who got bribed for this project to happen??
Tax abatement is only 10 years for property tax, and it is probably phased. That’s typical. Property tax on $1 Billion is pretty hefty.
200 high paying jobs, average salary $100k, means good money coming in to the local economy.
I find the NIMBYS fascinating. Everyone of them use data centers, not a single one wants one.
Show me it’s 200 high paying IT jobs with real benefits making 100k for local residents… and not a group of $30 an hour contract technicians who serve 6 data centers while the administrators work remotely (or even internationally). It’s not 1996 and they’re not feeding 30 floppy disks into the server to set it up.
I think a solar farm would be more beneficial.
Leave it in farmland.
One data center won’t have 200 high paying IT jobs. Maybe 200 jobs including construction, but not 200 long-term jobs.
Let’s document the before status of these communities now–then go back in 5 years and document the status. Unfortunately we are too far down the road on too many of these to know the real impact they will have on communities.